everythingunderthesun.

Salutations :D
So I messed around with GIMP since I didn't have adobe photoshop installed on my Mac. And here's the product:

                                           TADAAAAA~!!!
I took quite a while to get the end result since this is my very first time with GIMP and it's quite different than photoshop.
Conclusion: I still love photoshop. 
Maybe I'm giving a biased opinion since I have more experience handling photoshop but...there weren't any 'sparks' or 'fireworks' when I used GIMP. The layout of the program is quite messy for me and it took me quite a while to finally comprehend how to use the gradient. WHICH IS TERRIBLE!
T-T
P/S: Firefox screwed up the font settings for my blog. (So SADDDD) So if you want to see how the real blog should look like, you can use Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer and etc :)

Assalamualaikum readers. or should I say 'reader' since I'm positive I'm the only one reading this. hehe.
So, where should I start...hmm, right. Ok so last week, some friends of mine (I HEART YOU) got together in my room and we had a <3to<3 talk. Um, I really love that session and even though it was my very first hth session, I felt as though it would be one of the most memorable session I would ever have. (Urgh, so many 'session's in a sentence. I really need to expand my vocabulary dictionary.) Awww. ok, straight to the subject. I definitely felt closer to all of them, Alhamdulilah, and somehow, I feel the need to open up about some issues that I have been facing the past 2 years. Ok, so 1 issue at a time. Let's go.

I've been wearing the hijab since I was 9 but I started to wear it 'full-time' since I was 12. Alhamdulilah, after I entered polytechnic, I have never not wear my hijab everytime I'm in the presence of someone who isn't my muhrim. Which include every Saturday night at my Grammy's since my uncle-in-laws are there :D

I often travel so it's not surprising to meet a few odd characters along the way. When I was 15, my dad was working in Thailand and so my sister and I were heading to Pattaya from Singapore to stay with him during the school holidays. We had the 3 seater row and our 'neighbour' had yet to arrive when we were already seated. While minding our own business, a redneck decided to grace us with his presence. And guess who this redneck is? OUR NEIGHBOUR! YAY! (note sarcasm) He wasn't pleased to see us, two hijabis, sitting next to his seat.

"Oh My God. I'm not sitting there." He said to the stewardess

Being a 15 year old, all I could do was stare at him. I couldn't come up with a witty remark or a retort to shut his mouth up for good. No, all I could do was give a good hard glare.

"Oh, you can always change your seat if there's an available one sir. But after we take off." the SINGAPORE AIRLINE stewardess replied. Traitor. Where's the good Singaporean spirit when you need one?

For once in my life, I felt small because of my hijab. I'm not blaming it, but I felt alienated and judged because of it. (If that makes any sense). Redneck grunted his thanks and grumpily squeezed his way to the window seat. I remember feeling moody for the rest of the flight and it didn't help that the other passengers keep giving us awry glances. When we finally landed and met our father, I recounted what happened and he was upset. He was telling me that I should just ask the Redneck what his problem was with me.

See, it's very discriminating to associate Islam with terrorists just because the 'well-known' terrorists are 'muslims'. Are we forgetting the IRA, KKK, Tamil Tigers, Japanese Red Army, Aum Shinrikyo, etc? If I were to ask you the first thing that comes to your mind when I say terrorist, what would you think of? Turban? Islam? Beard? Arabs? Hijab?
Now, how is that fair?

Sigh...I shall end this post for now. And hopefully we can continue with this ASAP. Stay tune for my hijab identity part 2. :)
Peace out <3

ASSALAMUALAIKUM!
hehe,
should I apologize beforehand? you know, for neglecting my blog?
well, I'm sorry.
ok, back to business. I'm currently hooked on wattpad and it's been my companion when insomnia decided to visit me. And somehow I felt the urge to start writing. But I don't exactly know what to write yet. See, I have a million ideas that are dying to pour out from my brain cells and somehow I can't pinpoint that one great idea that I want to start writing on. So, after staring at the blank screen for 30 minutes, I decided to write a page on a very basic introduction. Something that will allow me to let my story grow.
That was 2 days ago. Still no progress. Wish me luck.

Assalamualaikum. Yes, I know. I'm sorry. I shall not neglect my blog anymore. I shall pull my act together and stop procrastinating for once. Ok, lets continue to a more interesting topic, shall we? During the 5 months of school break - YES 5 MONTHS! - I was busy hunting for good movies to pass the time with when I was either too lazy to go out or too bored to watch anything on the good old tv and so far, I found out that I have a very keen interest in ACTION PACKED MOVIES! SURPRISE? Nah, not me. See, I always had this thing for elaborate schemes and other genres just don't have that special umph! You can't have elaborate schemes in Romance! It'll just drag things and complications are ingredients you don't want to add in a relationship. How about Horror, you say? Basically, I hate watching movies that give me nightmares. Period. So, back to action packed movies, some of the titles I do recommend you to watch are:
1) The A Team
2) The Lord of the Rings
3) The Bourne Trilogy
4) Die Hard - All of them (I lost count on how many Die Hards there are)
5) Ocean 11,12 and 13
6) Salt
Interestingly though, I'm not a fan of both James Bond and Mission Impossible movies because I don't like Tom Cruise (he creeps me out *shudders*) and James Bond has too many 'scenes' I'm not comfortable with. I mean, if I want to see two people playing tonsil hokey, I would have chosen some romantic movie, right?
Also, if you noticed, the bad guys in these movies are always Russians, South Americans or (wait for it) ARABS! I literally crinched when ARABS are the bad guys. Talk about stereotypes. Tsk tsk, these people shouldn't always be portrayed as the bad guys. Come on Hollywood producers, there are so many different ethnicities in the world and you only chose 3? Where are your creativity guys?
Ok ok, enough about these movies. TELL ME YOUR FAVOURITE MOVIE AND WHY?
That's about it I guess. PEACE OUT <3

heyhey folks.
I decided on doing a book review every month. Tell me what you think ok? :D

Anybody Out There - 7 and a half/10 suns

"Anna Walsh is officially a wreck. Physically broken and emotionally shattered, she lies on her parents’ Dublin sofa with only one thing on her mind: getting back to New York. New York means her apartment, The Most Fabulous Job In The World™ and above all, it means her husband, Aidan."
(taken from mariankeyes.com)

As soon as you read chapter 1, you'll begin to question a lot of things about the protagonist and her dilemma. I thought she did something HORRIBLY WRONG to her husband which is why he ignored her, (you'll understand if you read it) but when you get into the middle of the novel, you'll get this sick feeling in your stomach. No, it's not because of some gruesome details. You know the feeling when you know something is amiss and that you know that eventually it'll turn out into something even worse than the current situation? Yeah, that "sick-feeling-in-your-stomach". But it's quite a good read because it's different and definitely not your cliched Meg Cabot Princess Diaries. AOT is a more mature and "grown-up" material, targeted for 20s and 30s and so on. This novel deals with the struggle to handle and overcome the pain of someone you lost. Especially someone you really love. And the journey of a woman going through all means trying to get him back :)

Not for those who loves happy ending. Although it does have a vague good ending at the end, it's not the outcome that I like. That's just me. :)

HAPPY READING :)

heyhey. My very first post after eons. Well well, if I may say so, blogger does a pretty good job cleaning up it's messy templates. Very impressive. I guess now since that I won't be doing much writing in Biomedical Science, I might as well channel my "creative writing skills" to a blog. Fingers crossed that this one might actually live longer. So, what am I doing at 2 in the morning, you might ask? See, I'm a part-time tutor and sadly my work clashes with Glee Season 2. I decided on staying up to catch the later time slot when I got caught up with Formspring and Youtube while waiting for the show to start at bloody 1:25 am. Anyway, I will be posting up my two cents (haven't heard that phrase in a long time huh?) on current affairs and basically everything under the sun. Well, that's it for now.